Reviving Old Stage Fresnels

If you use the harbor freight dimmers, keep a bunch of the fuses with you. Anything over 500 watts seems to blow mine out. You can tell it's about to go when a grip grabs a dimmer and yells "SH*T that's hot!"

Do let us know what you find about a 1K bulb in those 750 fixtures.

Also, regarding an earlier post about 750 bulbs in these lights and scrimming/dimming: get some 500 lamps as well. You'll find plenty of times where you wish you didn't have the hassle of scrims or the color temp changes of dimming. You're STILL pulling 7-ish amps when you dim these; use a 500 when you need it and get more lights on a 15 amp circuit. 500 globes are a few bucks less, and seem to last much longer.

That particular bulb base can be hard to swap bulbs - I put a squirt of WD40 in mine every now and then (an hour or more before I use them). Makes a big diff.
 
I have 1Ks in my old 6" Altman 750W rated fixtures. The bulb receptacles are not the issue nor is the metal housing, it's just the type of wire insulation that was used. I changed the old fraying wires(plastic insulators that had started to char) out with high temp(silicone insulators with fiberglass covering) wires from an electrical supply house after stripping and repainting the bodies with 1500F barbeque grill paint. Everything has been good for quite some time.

I keep a couple 500/750/1k lamps around to change out too.
 
I had heard about the dimmers going out quickly. I'll look into more fuses. Thank you. And the WD40 trick sounded great (I bought a small can that travels in a case with my gear now).

I have a shoot coming up soon (I think), where I will need the offering of 4x 750W fixtures, I believe, but I'm anxious just to shoot in general and see how much I end up knocking down the light. I haven't shot anything since I took them apart. I will likely be doing a lot of daylight balancing. I plan to use pieces of ND.15 gel slid into the color holder slot in the barn doors to knock down the light.

I need to put the lights through their paces to find what adjustments must be made.

I'll look into replacing the wires; obviously, part of running these lights through a shoot will determine if getting a 1K lamp is something I need. I want a 1K fresnel, as most of the 1K's I work with are open-face or soft-lights.


(I must be needy; I began almost every sentence with "I.")
 
Keep an eye on your ND and CTB gels when you're at 750 & up... they can fade pretty fast from the heat, when they're in the gel holders close to the lens.
 
Michael Carter said:
Keep an eye on your ND and CTB gels when you're at 750 & up... they can fade pretty fast from the heat, when they're in the gel holders close to the lens.
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I was weighing the pros and cons of having a small piece of ND in the color slot on the barn doors against having a piece 8 times as big fit the barn doors.

I won't really know until I put them through a shoot what is the best option.

I have plenty of ND.15, but I'm sick of burning through CTB.
 
ND.15 is what, around 1/2 stop? Maybe invest in some 1/2 scrims? They'll last longer than gels for sure.
 
I have had Harbor Freight dimmers for three years and run 1k's on them all the time. I have never blown a fuse or had one run hot.
 
The only difference is how they are made and what bulbs they use. Stage fresnels aren't made as fancy as video ones are but I've found no real difference in how well they hold up in daily use. The bulbs are different usually but work just the same.

Functionally they aren't any different.
 
Svart said:
The only difference is how they are made and what bulbs they use. Stage fresnels aren't made as fancy as video ones are but I've found no real difference in how well they hold up in daily use. The bulbs are different usually but work just the same.

Functionally they aren't any different.
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The focus mechanism is generally a little cruder in the stage fresnel than the video/film. This is because the focus is adjusted much less often.
 
Aside from how they manage heat and the materials they use to minimize cost, theatrical Fresnels (and other fixtures) are often designed to minimize light leaks. This is not the case with film and television fixtures, where light emitting from places other than the lens isn't a distraction as it is in live theatre. Film and television fixtures are designed to be handled while they are hot, so you'll find non-conducting materials used wherever you need to make adjustments without killing the fixture.

You should have a pair of gloves for G&E work anyway, but know that those Altman, L&E, Strand and Times Square bare-bones fixtures will be very hot to handle. The 65Q in particular requires a Crescent wrench to loosen and gloves to move the spot-flood tensioning bolt.

There are some theatrical fixtures that kind of bridge the gap in design - the Strand Acclaim 4" Fresnels are actually pretty good. The Arena is from Strand is another one to look at. We have several demos of these in our shop in Charlotte if you're looking for an "as new" discounted fixture.
 
phudsontx said:
The focus mechanism is generally a little cruder in the stage fresnel than the video/film. This is because the focus is adjusted much less often.
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true. Sorry, I was just being overly general I suppose. Functionally they are the same though, with lamp, reflector and lens. I replaced my hex bolts with thumb bolts and they work just fine. Takes me about the same time to adjust the altmans as it does the Arri fresnels(twisting those burning hot knobs a million times it seems..)
 
Starting next friday I have a 4 day shoot using my DIY 1.2k HMI built in an old 8" fresnel. It's done very well in testing, can't wait to give it a try in the real world.
 
jscottprice said:
My 4 Fresnels (see http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...age-Fresnels&p=2351569&viewfull=1#post2351569) will be put through a shoot this weekend, so I'll be able to make some comments on their use on set in addition to what Paul and Erik have said.
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I use those same L&E/Altman fresnels all the time, they work quite well. Nice sized lens that delivers a very good fresnel look with no whacked color at the edges. They're very tough; I think the barn doors are awfully heavy & complex for what they do, and they don't have the "hot-handling" features... and if you hang them certain ways you have to clamp gel frames or barndoors in.

They also make a "top hat" (snoot) that's a really dynamite thing to have - about 8" long so it's almost like having a leko when you need it; and I have a set of mole grids that work in these as well. I have three, and carry 500 and 750 globes; I have a 4th one that's converted to a 150 HID with an external ballast, seems about a 500w equivalent and nice daylight - that's a sweet light.

Anyone tried 1k lamps in these yet? They're UL rated to 750, curious to see if they'll handle 1k though. Mine have the newer fiberglass heat shields on the wires.
 
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